British grocer Marks & Spencer is now powering a few of its stores with an anaerobic digester. The machine converts food waste to biogas, which it uses to create electricity. Plans are underway to build another, and the two digesters should power six stores. So don’t feel bad the next time you pay too much for the store’s shi shi offerings–you’re subsidizing energy efficiency.
Not to be outdone by the private sector, London boroughs Greenwich and Bexley are planning to share a digester. The Southeast London facility will include household food waste, which Bexley already collects. Currently, the scraps create compost. Making energy, however, would be “Mae West.”
Closer to home, six Ohio Krogers will start a pilot project in 2008 to see if they can cut waste removal costs by using a digester. With grants from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, my guess: yes.
Then again, these plans pale in comparison to the French city of Lille’s scheme to power all of its buses by food waste. The project should be running by the end of 2008. Talk about saving some serious “bees and honey!”
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